Large hard drive in old computer

[petrolhead]

I have got a 10gig 2.5" hard drive to replace an old knackered 850meg HD.

When I fit it to an old Toshiba Satellite 110CS computer all it sees is either 16meg (Bios set to enhanced EIDE) or 503meg (Bios set to sdt hard drive).

Is there a dos utility to overcome this or am I missing something.

[Sgt.Colon]

You might need to update the Bios. Also can you choose LBA mode in the Bios? One last thing I can think of is to go to the website of the HDD's manufacturer and I'm sure they'll have some form on utility. :smashin:

[nathan_silly]

Is it a laptop or desktop?

You probably need to flash your motherboard. Download the correct .BIN file and EXE, and create a windows 95 dos boot disc. delete autoexec.bat and config.sys from the floppy, and copy the two bios files to the floppy.

boot from the floopy. then run the bios util.


After rebooting, check if your big HD can be detected. If it still doesn't. the only the alternative is to but a PCI Promise IDE controller, about £30. This will take full advantage of the U-DMA speed of the new HD, therefore it will be alot faster (less CPU time)

If it's a laptop you obviously can't add a PCI card.

Nathan

[Sgt.Colon]

Nathan.

It's a laptop. :)

[nathan_silly]

I've had a look at Tosh site. Latest version of BIOS is 5.20, for the 110.

Reboot, and try and find the bios release on the screen.

Nathan

[petrolhead]

I have just updated the BIOS from 5.1 to 5.2 but no difference.

When using FDISK you normally get the choice of FAT or FAT32 right at the start but with this laptop you do not get a choice it goes straight into the fdisk utility so i assume that it only recognised FAT which is not a problem coz 2gig would be enough.

There is nothing in the BIOS to set a non std HD up ie Cylinder disks etc

[nathan_silly]

hmmm. I had a similar problem. My laptops pretty new (P4, 1.6ghz,20gb hd) Working fine.

Now I removed the HD and fitted a 4GB HD. The 4GB HD works on another laptop with no problems.


When I fitted it, the BIOS didn't detect a HD. This is very weird. The only thing I can think of is the BIOS is locked to my 20GB (not on Auto)

Perhaps yours is the same?- I can't get into the deep level settings, ie, CPU speed, HD settings, etc etc

Nathan

[nathan_silly]

Found this...

http://www.pwcrack.com/bios.shtml

[petrolhead]

Problem is the HD is not locked as I can see it. When I do a DIR it reports ont 500MB.

I may write to Toshiba and see if they have the answer.

Thanks Nathan, you like me must have having a quiet night at the computer :)

Just to add to my problems this PC (the one I am typing on now) is playing up as well. It had a 20gig IBM (Oh dear I hear you say) and it sometimes hangs for no reason and then locks up on a re-boot. I suspect the HD is on its way out. I know that these drive problems have been well documented so will just buy a new drive. Some on this site was talking about a very quiet HD, was it Seagate Bracuda?

TTFN

[Sgt.Colon]

Petrol.

Is this going to be your main drive? If so, stick in a XP cd and get that to format it. Hopefully it might notice the whole drive :)

[petrolhead]

Sorry Sgt

Are you talking about my Lapdog or Home PC.

If talking about the lapdog CD ha Ha. You goda be jokin it aint got one :(

[Sgt.Colon]

Petrol.

I was talking about your laptop. You should be able to get to XP formatting your drive in the XP setup without having to actually install it.

[petrolhead]

I didn't know XP iinstallation came on Floppy Disks or can you., like NT, create them?

I think I may have the answer. I went ot the IBM site which re-directs you to the Hitachi site. There you can download a Disk Manager utility which creates a disk overlay. Must put something at the very start of the dist, possible the FAT section. Now I can see all 10gig. Clever piece of software.

http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm scroll down to Disk Manager 2000 (v9.61).

I have setup 2 partitions and will copy the Win95 cd onto the secont partition using a zip drive. Will take time. from there I should be able to install Win95. Dos is already on.

Oh the joys of computing and to think I have spent all week sorting out the computers at work just to come home and have to sort my own.

He Ho :suicide:

[Sgt.Colon]

:eek: Thanks for that Petrol :) I just assumed you could boot from CD. Oh how quickly we move on. :laugh: